The mirror test--are we smart enough to test animal intelligence

[Catherine]

Everything you are both saying tells me that this whole testing and streaming of children is a big mistake. Children are denied opportunities who would really benefit from them. Other kids are given unfair advantages that they don't use.

I am not fully clear on how your system works, but we have similar things here. Tobi it was wrong to deny you a chance at science classes. They were your interest. You were not given a chance to go in the direction you wanted. Who gave them the right to decide your life direction like that.

LPC, no doubt you belonged in the grammar school if you could pass  the O levels. The kids who were resitting them probably had been coached and given help at the right time, but that didn't mean they could handle the work. That 11+ sounds like it was a tool being misused. Testing young children would be helpful if it shows who needs more instruction. It shouldn't be used to exclude children from opportunities.

This inequality of education opportunity is the reason why I spent so much time tutoring some of my neighbourhood children.  It gave them a chance to take the courses they wanted. The teachers had written them off and I didn't think that was fair. (there is a school guidance counsellor out there that I would like to have words with.) They were as bright as the other neighbours kids(whose parents sometimes did their homework for them). I never did their homework. I worked with them so they could do it themselves. And now they are successful adults.

I am lucky I grew up in a small town. The school wasn't fancy, but they couldn't test or stream children, because they didn't have the resources to do it. There were still inequalities, but everyone got the same teachers and classes. When it was time to move on the a higher level I got a chance to go to a private school. I know it is different from what you call a private school. It was a privately funded school for rich kids, which I was not. Like I said, it was an opportunity that changed my life.
They only offered a university entrance program so I ended up going to university. None of my grade school teachers would have believed it.

When we start testing people and animals and making judgements we really mess things up.
The first thing we need to learn is that testing is more about the tester that the person being tested.
If you test an elephant with a small mirror you are not thinking big enough to test an elephant in the first place.

What is with this obsession with mirrors. I have a small bathroom mirror. Why would I want a bunch of mirrors everywhere else. I do have a full length sewing mirror if I need to look at something I am making. I keep it in the closet unless I need it.
I think  Misty had the right attitude to mirrors.